Graduate Certificates

The College of Information and Cyberspace offers six graduate certificates, as follows:

  • Chief Data Officer
  • Chief Financial Officer
  • Chief Information Officer
  • Cyber Leadership
  • Chief Information Security Officer (CISO): Cyber Security
  • IT Program Management

Read more about the graduate certificate programs from Dr. Dorothy O. Potter and Professor David A. Harvey here: Invest in Yourself

 

Chief Data Officer

The Chief Data Officer (CDO) Certificate provides graduate-level education for those involved in establishing, enabling, or running programs related to data strategies, data governance, data analytics, or data management across the Department of Defense and federal government. It provides a certificate which balances development of technical knowledge and skills fundamental for data analysis, as well as leader-oriented principles and techniques critical for data-empowered government organizations. The program is designed for students with diverse undergraduate backgrounds and work experience, enabling them to become strategic leaders skilled in building, developing, and running data mature organizations and leveraging data as a strategic resource for national security.

Successful CDO graduates will be able to:

  • Apply data analytics tools and methodologies on data sets and communicate results with impactful visualizations. 
  • Advocate and communicate data sharing practices through organizational culture, policies, and systems development process, while fulfilling legal and ethical obligations of data ownership.
  • Evaluate enabling technologies and enterprise/data architectures to address requirements for data analytics programs, including real-time Big Data processing and machine learning/predictive analytic capabilities.
  • Create a data analytics program through data governance initiatives that support all data life-cycle considerations (e.g., authoritative source consolidation, updating, purging/avoiding sprawl, and archival).
  • Employ emerging technologies (and underlying data) to enhance data-driven decision-making for strategic effect.
  • Identify, shape, and formulate Data Strategies that ensure data availability and transparency, supporting multi-agency and/or multi-national collaboration.

Click here for more information on program content.

 

 Chief Financial Officer

Sponsored by the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Council, the CFO Academy was created in 2008 and is housed within National Defense University – College of Information and Cyberspace.

As described in DoDI No. 1025.10, Chief Financial Officer Academy, dated June 22, 2018, the CFO Academy provides accredited graduate level education in the leadership of resource management that enables DOD’s efficient and effective use of financial and other resources that supports the DOD mission. CFO Academy courses aligns with the financial management competencies specified in the DoD Financial Management Certification Program, which is managed by the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chief Financial Officer.

Successful CFO graduates will be able to:

  • Lead within and across organizational boundaries by leveraging knowledge of federal budgeting, financial accounting and reporting, data management and analytics, risk, internal controls, and audit for strategic advantage.
  • Synthesize ethics, theory, practices, and technologies to promote effective decision-making and accountability across the enterprise, improve operations, and support financial management excellence.
  • Communicate at the strategic level demonstrating command of the topic, logical organization, compelling argument, and excellence in English grammar and syntax.

Click here for more information on program content. 

 

Chief Information Officer

The NDU College of Information and Cyberspace (CIC) CIO Program is the recognized leader in graduate education for Federal CIO leaders and agency personnel. It addresses the Clinger-Cohen Act and other relevant legislation mandates as well as standard practices for interpretation and implementation of these legislative actions. It also directly aligns with the Federal CIO Council-defined CIO competencies.

CIO Program graduates earn a certificate that recognizes they have earned an education in Federal CIO competencies. The CIO Certificate is organized around subject areas directly related to CIO competencies identified by the Federal CIO Council.

Successful CIO graduates will be able to:

  • Leverage CIO policy and organization competencies to lead within and across federal organizational boundaries by linking critical decisions regarding resources, people, processes, and technologies to mission performance.
  • Balance continuity and change in the development, implementation, and evaluation of government information resources and management strategies and policies while meeting legislative and executive mandates.
  • Demonstrate abilities to construct and implement mission-aligned information and communication technology strategies [including gathering, analyzing, and reporting data; making decisions; implementing decisions; and evaluating organizational performance] in an ethical manner.
  • Communicate at the strategic level demonstrating command of the topic, logical organization, compelling argument, and excellence in English grammar and syntax.

Click here to for more information on program content.

 

Cyber Leadership

The National Defense University College of Information and Cyberspace (NDU CIC) Cyber Leadership (Cyber-L) program focuses on developing the skills and desired leadership attributes necessary to be an effective strategic leader in the cyberspace domain. The program achieves this through a rigorous curriculum that enhances the understanding of all aspects of cyberspace and how to best integrate cyberspace with the other elements of national power to achieve the nation’s strategic objective.

Successful Cyber Leadership graduates will be able to:

  • Apply principles of strategic leadership, including innovative and critical thinking, decision-making, and ethical conduct to achieve results-oriented organizational goals.
  • Develop strategies to improve resilient, adaptable, agile, and productive government organizations focused on national security in the information age.
  • Analyze the critical aspects of the human-made terrain that underpins information and cyberspace operations to include the technology, law, and policy that supports that terrain.
  • Evaluate collaboration strategies across organizational and cyberspace boundaries to leverage talent, resources, information technology, and opportunities to achieve mission success.
  • Produce strategic-level oral, written, and visual communication.

Click here to for more information on program content.

 

Chief Information Security Officer (CISO): Cyber Security

The Cyber-S program is a source of graduate-level information security education for those serving as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Senior Agency Information Security Officers (SAISO), their respective staffs, and as cyber security managers. This program provides advanced education to respond to the requirements set forth in the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).

Successful Cyber Security graduates will be able to:

  • Exercise strategic leadership and critical thinking in the development and use of cyber security strategies, plans, policies, enabling technologies, and procedures in cyberspace
  • Develop and lead programs to provide cyber security, security awareness training, risk analysis, certification and accreditation, security incident management, continuity of operations, and disaster
  • Link people, processes, information, and technology to critical cyber mission decisions to share information in a secure environment.
  • Develop and lead, in accordance with laws and regulations, an enterprise IA program that promotes and attains national security, agency, and inter-agency goals.
  • Communicate at the strategic level demonstrating command of the topic, logical organization, compelling argument, and excellence in English grammar and syntax.

Click here for more information on program content.

 

Information Technology Program Management

The ITPM program is designed to meet the ever-increasing call for program managers across the federal government. The ITPM certificate is designed to assist agencies in complying with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) direction. The OMB requires that project managers qualified in accordance with CIO Council guidance manage all major information technology projects. The ITPM certificate requires successful completion of a graduate level curriculum to satisfy competencies established by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Interpretive Guidance for Project Management Positions and the CIO Council Clinger-Cohen Core Competencies. The certificate complements general project management training and the ANSI-recognized Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. It also provides formal educational credit, one of the qualifications required for award of the PMI Project Management Professional (PMP) certificate.

Successful ITPM graduates will be able to:

  • Lead and manage complex IT acquisition and other projects and programs that create value for their organizations through enhanced mission performance.
  • Apply higher order skills in critical thinking, negotiation, collaboration, and persuasion to synthesize solutions to program management challenges within and across organizational boundaries in an ethical manner.
  • Identify ways to use innovative technologies to accomplish customer service activities, thereby lowering costs, decreasing service delivery times, and improving the customer experience.
  • Evaluate the organizational value of new information technologies and develop strategies for employing them for strategic advantage.
  • Communicate effectively using traditional and more innovative methods.

Click here for more information on program content.